12 Ways to Get Quick Feedback From Customers Online

What is the best inexpensive way to get quick feedback from customers online?

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

1. Feedback Tabs

Services like Get Satisfaction allow you to embed feedback links directly into your site. The questions and feedback entered is saved into an active community. Your moderators can then follow up or direct them to where they need to go. Support tickets can even be created.
– Michael Quinn, Yellow Bridge Interactive

2. Personal Emails

If you really want to get quality feedback, you have to be willing to invest the time and resources necessary to make your customer feel like you actually care about their feedback. Reaching out to them directly doesn’t cost you anything, and as long as your outreach isn’t templated, you have a high likelihood of receiving valuable feedback.
– Emily Eldridge Holdman, PeopleKit

3. Facebook

Whether it’s Facebook or another social media account, it only takes a few moments to post a question to your followers (and it’s free). Phrase it so it’s simple to understand and simple to answer. Add an image to boost its appeal.
– Nicolas Gremion, Free-eBooks.net

4. Live Chat Systems

I have gotten the best constructive criticism being on the chat system of our website. When you are talking to a customer they are able to let you know what they are thinking and if the website provides the information that they are seeking. Sometimes they are even kind enough to spot a bug or two on the website that you overlooked.
– Derek Capo, Next Step China

5. FiveSecondTest.com

If you’re wondering what customers think as soon as they land on your website, ask the FiveSecondTest community for help. In five seconds, users of the site will look at the page of your choice and give you their honest first reactions. You can either earn feedback by helping analyze other sites, or purchase feedback at a reasonable price.
– Brooke Bergman, Allied Business Network Inc.

6. Handwritten Notes

We use Olark, pop up surveys, contests, email follow-up and gamification to get feedback from customers. But the single best way we have found to get great customer feedback is through a hand written thank you note. This is where the bulk of our positive reviews and feedback comes from. Most people are not accustomed to that level of personal customer service anymore.
– Gary Nealon, The Rox Group

7. Surveys

Iframe or embed a survey directly underneath the product, service or experience. Engage your consumers with 1-3 questions. Your consumer will be more likely to answer the survey questions if they know how answering the survey is going to benefit them — so also tell them why you’re asking.
– Charles Gaudet, Predictable Profits

8. LinkedIn Recommendations

Once a project is completed, your sales team should be asking for feedback via LinkedIn’s Recommendations feature. Even though this recommendation will be posted on your salesperson’s personal LinkedIn profile page, hopefully other potential customers will see those recommendations as they connect and interact with your sales team.
– Björn Stansvik, MentorMate

9. Twitter

When we want quick feedback on a feature idea we turn to our Twitter followers. Customers who follow you on social media want to be a part of this conversation, so include them. It shows the customers publicly that you value their feedback and gets them to buy into your company’s vision.
– Gerard Murphy, Mosaic Storage Systems, Inc.

10. Email Autoresponders

Setting up two specific email autoresponders will give you invaluable feedback from customers online. One email autoresponder is from abandoned checkouts. This will give you feedback on why they didn’t buy. The second email autoresponder is sent as soon as a customer receives their merchandise. This will give you feedback on customer happiness. Both pieces of feedback open up more opportunities.
– Brett Farmiloe, Markitors

11. Forum Discussions

Just ask them! For quality feedback we go straight to the source. Interacting with customers (and potential customers) through forums and social media creates engaging, open discussions that benefit everybody.
– Marvin Amberg, Caseable

12. Social Media

Engage with your fans and start conversations. You’ll get the most honest, real feedback from your fans if you can engage in dialogue.
– Alexis Wolfer, TheBeautyBean.com

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world's most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.